Update at 10:20 a.m. August 7: The City Council this morning approved the mayor's nominees without discussion.

Original item at 3 p.m. August 5: After a week of silence, Mayor Mike Rawlings took a forceful step Monday amid the tumult faced by the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System over fake social media profiles.

Rawlings recommended a shake-up of the four council members who serve among the pension board's 12 trustees, saying he wants to bring in fresh voices and debate.

Griggs’ appeal came the day after a Dallas Morning News investigation revealed that former KXAS-TV (Channel 5) anchor Mike Snyder, as a consultant for pension lawyers, had created fake Facebook profiles to defend pension officials, attack opponents and sway public opinion.

Two other City Council members, Jerry Allen and Sheffie Kadane, did not receive the mayor’s endorsement to remain on the pension board. Former council member Delia Jasso is leaving the board after her defeat in May’s council election.

In an interview Monday, the mayor said that Museum Tower, which the pension fund owns, was not the focus of his decision. He said that because Dallas taxpayers are ultimately on the hook for any shortfalls of the more than $3 billion fund, he wanted to make sure the board is making good investment decisions.

“I’ve been on investment committees, and I think the best investment committees are those that believe in healthy debate about strategies and tactics, not that are always in lock step,” Rawlings said. “The team that I’m nominating will ensure that there’s going to be fresh debate, and that our public safety professionals are taken care of, because the right questions are going to be asked.”

Pending a City Council vote Wednesday on the mayor's nominations, the new board members could begin as early as the pension board's monthly meeting Thursday.

The mayor nominated two council newcomers for the board: Philip Kingston and Lee Kleinman. Both were elected to the City Council in May and are known for being outspoken.

Rawlings also nominated a close ally, council veteran Tennell Atkins.

All three nominees, like the mayor, have said they want success for both Museum Tower and the Nasher.

“I guess he put me on there to have an open view, an open mind and dig into the weeds,” Atkins said. “My main thing is going in there and finding out what is the problem. Is it leadership?”

“Whatever the eventual resolution to the Museum Tower problem is, this method of communication is in bad faith and not designed to achieve a negotiated solution,” Kingston wrote. “That it was done with taxpayer dollars is maddening."

Kleinman, a businessman and former Dallas park board member, said his first priority as a pension board member will be to protect city tax dollars.

“We’re dealing with complex transactions, a lot of money, heavy city responsibility, and we just need to make sure that we’re on solid footing up there and decisions are sound,” he said.

On the Museum Tower issue, Kleinman said pension officials’ tactics must change for the good of both public safety employees and the city’s arts district.

“If they wouldn’t have come out fighting, if they would have come out more amenable, they actually could have come out heroes on this thing,” he said. “But they look like they’re trying to be bullies, and I don’t think we have to stand for that.”

Outgoing board members Allen and Kadane remained silent last week after Snyder’s fake social media strategy came to light. Both have expressed confidence that the fund is headed in the right direction.

“I feel like we’re walking away leaving the fund in a good position,” Allen said, calling it one of the “premier” funds in the nation.

Kadane, about the uproar over Snyder’s actions, said that’s in the past. Snyder resigned and pension officials said they knew nothing of his actions.

“I think it was something that Snyder did on his own. I don’t feel like the pension system had anything to do with it,” Kadane said. “It’s not right to do business like that, and I think he realizes it, too. That situation’s taken care of hopefully. He’s no longer there.”

Both Allen and Kadane were in San Antonio on Monday attending an educational conference of the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

The Dallas police-fire pension fund receives more than $100 million on city taxpayer funds each year.

Over the past 20 years, the fund’s annual return of 9.11 percent was best in the state among those surveyed by the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems.

But during the past five years, since the real estate bubble burst, the pension system’s returns have fallen short of the national average. The median annual return by large public funds nationwide for that period was 2.82 percent, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service. The Dallas fund’s annual return was 0.95 percent.

The system aims to achieve an annual return of 8.5 percent to meet its obligations to the families of 9,200 active and retired police and firefighters. Pension officials say that can’t be done with traditional investments alone.